Expiring Counterparty Contract Links

What is Contract Link Expiry?

The contract link expiry feature allows the SpotDraft users to set the duration after which the contract link(signing or review) becomes inaccessible to the counterparty. The users can adjust the expiry duration for active links, even after sending the contract for review or signing. If the link expires, users on SpotDraft who have the necessary permissions can send a new link to the counterparty recipient. By default, SpotDraft expires the counterparty signing and review links in 365 days.

Note: The contract link expiry is only applicable to counterparty recipients. The creator party recipient can log in to access the contract.

Necessary Permissions :- Users who create and edit contracts can resend or reactivate the link while it is active or after it expires. You can find this in the Settings --> Access Control --> Contract Type --> Creators/Editors.

Setting up link expiration

You can set expiration duration while sending the contract via template flow, upload flow, and the contract link preferences option on the contact page. Let’s take a look at how to set expiry for the respective flows.

Template Flow

For Template Flow, users can set up the duration for the link expiration of review links while sending the contract out for review.
Click on the Edit CTA beside the expiration duration and and it will open up the Contract Link Preferences modal.
In the contract link preferences modal, enter the duration after which the contract link will expire. Click on Save and Close.
Click on Send, to send the review link to the respective counterparty recipient.
You can view the expiration duration, by hovering on the icon in the contract status card.

Upload Flow

For the upload flow, you can setup the expiration duration while sending the contract for signature.

Click on Edit CTA for link expiration
This will open up the Contract Link Preference modal, from where you can edit the duration for the links to expire.
Click on Send for Signing to send the contract for signature for entered expiration duration.
You can view the date at which the link will expire, by hovering on the icon in the contract status card.

Contract Link Preferences

In-case you missed out setting up the expiration duration for contract links while sending to counterparty, you can set it up via “Contract Link Preferences” option in the overflow menu in the contract page. This will open up the Contract Link Preferences modal, from where you can edit the link expiration duration.

Viewing the Expiration Date for the Review/Signing link

Once the contract link is sent, you can view the expiration duration, by hovering on the icon in the contract status card.

Once the Link Expires

SpotDraft View

Once the review/signing link expires, you can see the expired status on the contract status card, along with the expiration date. Additionally, you can “Reactivate” the expired link using the reactivate button.

Additionally, you will receive a notification email for all contract links that expired in the past 1 day. You can turn off this notification in the Notification Preferences under the “Contract signing and review links have expired” option.

Counterparty Signatory View

Note :-

The expiration duration starts when the link is first sent to the counterparty recipient.
Only Business Users(BU), creators, editors and admins can edit the expiration duration.
A reminder email is sent to the counterparty signatories one day before the link expires.
The Business Users(BU) will receive an email for all contracts with links that expired in the past 1 day. You can turn off these notifications in the preferences settings.

FAQs

When does the expiration duration come into action for a contract link?

The expiration period for a contract link starts when the counterparty receives the review/signing link for the first time.
I have resent the existing contract link for signing, will the expiration duration reset?

If the link is resent before the original link has expired, the expiration time remains unchanged. However, if a new link is sent after the original one has expired, the expiration period resets and the link will expire N days from when the link is received by the counterparty signatory.
If one recipient transfers their role to another, does that affect the expiration time of the link?

No, re-assigning the recipient does not change the expiration duration of contract link.
Can I adjust the duration of expiry after sending out the contract for signing/review?

Yes, for active links, you can adjust the duration for the contract links. The adjusted duration will consider the time when the link was first sent to the counterparty recipient. For instance, if a review link originally expires in 5 days and it was sent on August 15, 2024, but then the user extends the duration to 10 days, the link will now expire on August 25, 2024. However, note that changing the duration for expired links won't affect their lifetime as this setting is only applicable to Active links which have not expired yet. For those, you'll need to send a new link and set the desired duration.
Will the link expiry have any effect on my contract?

No, expiration of a contract link will not have any impact on your contract. This will just block Counterparty signatories/POCs from accessing the contract. You can always send a new link to respective signatories in-order to get contract signed.
I sent the contract for review using Template Flow, and the signing link was automatically triggered. After how long will the signing link expire?

The expiration duration of the signing link will be the same as the duration you set for the contract link when sending the contract. This means the signing link will expire “N” (where N is the expiration duration set for the particular counterparty link) days after which it was sent to the recipient for the first time. You can modify this setting in the Contract Link Preferences on the contract page once the signing link gets triggered.
What will happen to the counterparty signatory / POC if they try to access the contract link after link expires?

Once the link expires, the counterparty signatory / POC will not be able to access the contract. They will be prompted with a banner to reach out to the respective Business User of the contract to request them for a new link.
Can I set different expiration duration for each party in multi-party contracts?

No, you can’t set individual expiry links for multi-party contracts, since the same contract link is sent to both the parties.
Can I set expiration duration via SFDC while sending the contract?

Yes, when sending the contract to the counterparty for review, you'll be able to edit the link's expiration duration.